Page 1:Super Mario Bros.
Summary This is the game that *almost* started it all (though that title actually goes to Donkey Kong), and though Atari and Coleco were the first pioneers of at-home video gaming, Super Mario Bros. raised the bar on at-home gaming with a sophisticated game that was still very easy to play. Story The Mushroom Kingdom: A peaceful and serene place, home of the Toads and ruled by the righteous Princess Peach Toadstool. But the evil Koopa leader named Bowser had placed a spell on the Kingdom to make it his very own. Princess Peach is the only one that can relieve her own country, but because Bowser knows if this, he decides to kidnap her and her 8 mushroom retainers to maintain rule over her country. But her cries for help have caught the ears of 2 heroic plumbers: Mario and Luigi. They risk their lives to defeat Bowser's Army and liberate the Mushroom Kingdom. Gameplay The game begins as either Mario or Luigi (or both one at a time) ventures through the Mushroom Kingdom to defeat Bowser Koopa's army consisting of Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Cheep-Cheeps, Bloobers, Lakitus, Buzzy Beetles, Bullet Bills and Hammer Brothers. They can also use the famous Super Mushroom to grow bigger, so big that they can shatter the sand blocks that make up most of the worlds you'll venture. The game in total had 32 stages (8 worlds with 4 segments each) and some of these segments consist of many kinds of environments, but it always ends in a castle where you must fight a version of Bowser Koopa (either defeating him with Fire Balls from a Fire Flower or take out the bridge he's on by using the axe at the end of that bridge. If you're one of those gamers that think that going through 32 stages is too time consuming, you can find "Warp Zones" that'll take you to another world and bypass the other worlds that come before it. Other tricks that you can perform in this game is that if you take a stomped Koopa Troopa (or Buzzy Beetle) and kick it to mow down Goombas or other enemies, you'll not only get extra points but an extra life if you mow down a certain consecutive number of enemies. Speaking of bonus areas, there are plenty in this game which you'll find coins (which give you an extra life once you collect 100 of them, a staple that'll be for some video games since). Though the game was quite challenging, but if you think that completing the entire game was easy for you, then you'll be in for a treat once you do complete the game. You can play the game again on something called the "Second Adventure" where you play the same game again on a higher level of difficulty. In this case, Koopa Troopas are replaced by Buzzy Beetles. The game also had a very interesting glitch which is called the "Minus World" where you'll traverse an endless underwater stage. Reception Of course, this game became an overnight sensation as it had gamers of all kind raving for it. This game also revolutionized gaming and turned it into the multi-billion dollar business we know it today. Trivia * During development of the game, there was only a few minor enemies but most of them were immortal and or re-spawned. The developers wanted to create an enemy that could be easily defeated by one hit, that is where they came up with the Goomba. But due to inadequate space on the cartridge, the sprite sheet of the Gooma is just one, and just moved that one image back and forth. **Furthermore about the Goombas, and contrary to popular thought. Goombas are inspired to look like Chestnuts, not Mushrooms. * Through a game enhancer or hacking into the game, you can face Bloopers in dry areas rather than just water areas. **The Bloopers are also apparently vulnerable to being stomped as well as fireballs, and by defeating them you'll get 1,000 points. * The game itself was originally going to be a shooter game. Mario and Luigi were originally going to shoot bullets rather than fireballs and they can ride on clouds. Though, this concept wasn't used for this game, but the cloud riding concept was re-used for Super Mario World. * It's known already that the background cloud and bush are the same sprite, just colored differently. * It's also known that the game has the "Minus World" which is an everlasting water stage. But the Japanese Version had the same glitch, but it was a full fledge world of it's own. * The behavior of Spiny Shells thrown by Lakitu only having vertical movement and turn into Spinies once they hit a horizontal surface was not the original intention. The movement of the Spiny Shells was intended to be more dynamic and thrown relative to the speed of Lakitu and the player as well as the player's position and to bounce off sand blocks.